How-To Geek

For years, one name has dominated the SUV sales charts, earning a reputation as the default choice for families looking for practicality, efficiency, and reliability. That dominance, however, is being tested. Production challenges have limited availability at a time when competition in the SUV segment is fiercer than ever, creating an opportunity for rivals to gain ground.

There are plenty of ways to trigger smart home automations. Schedules are great for things that you need to happen at the same time each day, and motion sensors are a good way to make automations respond to your physical presence. There are many times when a cheap NFC tag is by far the best option.

As good as Amazon's Fire TV Sticks are, pretty much every user knows that they become a lot more sluggish over time. It isn't because the hardware has suddenly become obsolete. Although they were never powerhouses in terms of performance, they remain capable for many years. The most likely culprit is that the storage is running low, and it's an easy fix.

Android Auto feels pretty great straight out of the box. I can't lie that it impressed me the first time I tried it out in a new car. It instantly makes navigation and media feel a lot more intuitive and integrated than a standard phone mount or factory navigation system ever could.

If you're still on Wi-Fi 5, you're probably waiting for Wi-Fi 7 routers to come down in price before you upgrade. However, it's going to be a while before Wi-Fi 7 prices are reasonable for even midrange gear.

Cars are getting more complicated each year. As they become more computerized and complex, the number of tasks that a non-mechanic owner can handle themselves decreases. However, there are still plenty of basic maintenance and repair tasks that almost anyone can do in their own garage. All you need is the right equipment.

The iPad has been around for a long time, and while a lot of the hardware is now too old to be useful, some of the components can still be put to good use. I ripped apart an old iPad and turned it into an always-on display for my smart home cameras.

When you're buying an eReader, it's tempting to get whatever is most convenient or powerful. You don't want to miss out on a must-have feature or shop from a small brand, right?

One of my homelab goals was to replace Google Drive. I hate paying Google money. However, the further I got into trying to replace Google Drive, the more I realized that Google Drive was the solution I was searching for—so I realized it was time to embrace Google after all.

Apple Music has quietly become the better music streaming service—it’s more affordable than Spotify and offers higher quality audio than Spotify. That said, I’ve been using Spotify for ten years, collecting songs and building personalized playlists, and I wasn’t keen on throwing all of that away just to move to Apple Music.

Gemini regularly impresses me by carrying out complex, multifaceted requests. That’s why it’s so infuriating when it fails spectacularly at the most basic tasks—things Google Assistant could handle with ease. There’s a simple solution to this problem: make Gemini dumber.

Toys help shape who we are in our childhood, but at times, the tales we engage in are big enough to reach the silver screen. For decades, toy manufacturers have used movies to expand upon the world of their products. While many of these can be seen as cynical cash-ins, there is no shortage of examples that manage to capture the hearts and minds of both the young and old.

Toys help shape who we are in our childhood, but at times, the tales we engage in are big enough to reach the silver screen. For decades, toy manufacturers have used movies to expand upon the world of their products. While many of these can be seen as cynical cash-ins, there is no shortage of examples that manage to capture the hearts and minds of both the young and old.

Are your Plex streams slow or stuttery? Chances are it's not your Plex server at all, and it's likely your home network. Here are a few things to check before you go diving into configuration and settings pages, because you probably don't even need to check there.

Home Assistant is incredibly powerful, and the core features allow you to do an enormous amount with your smart home devices. It's not perfect, however, and there are some things that aren't possible with the default features. There's a very useful custom integration that lets it do even more.

For years, I kept self-hosting in the “sounds cool, but not for me” category. I wasn’t into Linux or servers, and I assumed it required too much time and too much knowledge just to get started.

If you have an Android phone, you probably use Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet. As a long-time Galaxy user, I've used Samsung Wallet (formerly Samsung Pay) for more than a decade to take advantage of all its conveniences. But that doesn't mean I don't use Google's version too. I actually use both apps because they work better together.

Picking a cordless tool brand feels like it should be simple until you realize the battery you buy first decides everything that comes after it. I learned that the hard way when I priced out a basic kit and saw the gap between Milwaukee and Ryobi up close. Both brands come from the same parent company, but they're built for completely different users and budgets.

AI doesn't always have to rely on the cloud. You can use local LLMs for a lot and give them access to information from the internet without having to expose them outside your home network. I built an AI-generated morning news briefing using a local LLM that never touches the cloud.

Whether you buy expensive SSDs or choose more affordable models (which are also quite expensive right now, let's be real), you probably think that nothing is safer than a new SSD. As in, at no point during the SSD's lifespan will your files be safer than right now, when you just bought it.